Multitasking is a Human-Crafted Tale

I’ve had two pilot boyfriends. The first one was by mistake, but the second one was intentional.

I met both of them online. The first one happened before I moved from my home country to Belgium. I was seeking something more significant than just making bold and uncertain choices, so I decided to connect with people online.

The initial intention was to chat with random people who could reassure me that moving to Europe was a wise decision and express their wish to be in my shoes. However, this attempt took an unexpected turn when I found myself flirting with a pilot who didn’t even share the same interests as me.

I was emotionally vulnerable back then, and I ended up falling in love with him. He was genuinely nice and a great conversationalist. Once he sensed my interest in his occupation, he began discussing highly technical aspects of his job with me.

My curiosity was piqued because it sounded incredibly complex, far removed from my academic and white-collar experiences in life. I was fascinated by the fact that he lived in a world about which I had zero knowledge.

That’s when I discovered the challenges of his job. It was the first time I felt that a job might be beyond my intellectual capacity. It is because I am terribly bad at multitasking, which means being able to switch your brain from task to task very quickly or separate your brain into pieces to do all tasks at the same time.

While the latter is the true definition of multitasking, the former is what actually happens in your brain when you attempt it.

To me, multitasking seemed nonsensical. Why couldn’t tasks be tackled one by one to completion? While it may sound more effective to do tasks one at a time, aviation operates differently.

It’s a concept not naturally ingrained in the human brain. Johann Hari eloquently explains this in his renowned book “Stolen Focus.” He argues that the brain’s fundamental structure is single-minded and not designed for multitasking. Multitasking strains the brain as it attempts to pick up where it left off, resulting in a cost: a degradation of focus, shallower thinking, and reduced creativity.

When I first read this, I felt relieved. I used to perceive my inability to multitask as a constant failure on my part. Now, knowing that it goes against human nature, I have begun to apply my own way of working that feels comfortable to me, which is mono tasking, I no longer force myself to work like those who can multitask, and it just worked for me.

But what about people who has to multitask to function? Is it true that pilots, due to multitasking, are more superficial and less creative? I don’t think so. I think, that would be the affect exactly when multitasking. And when you think of it, you can be superficial unless you are not missing any numbers in any of the panels on air; you definitely don’t need to be creative while being constantly aware of everything! You certainly don’t need to focus on any panel for too long as long as you understand what they mean with a single glimpse.

So, it sounds actually okay for them to multitask if they can show this inhuman performance after all. Yet, Is it truly admirable to exceed the boundaries of human nature? Is it really affecting a pilot’s everyday life negatively? Later, I found out.

When I met my second boyfriend, I was already too fascinated by how different their work and lifestyles were.

I have always found it challenging to connect with white-collar employees like myself, experiencing a lack of enthusiasm and a desire for something more when I was with them. I felt the same sense of being stuck inside an office building that cared little about what I did. Consequently, my conversations with individuals like me often became overly depressing. While this feeling could have been resolved by dating somebody with any other occupation, knowing that aviation is inherently enthusiastic drew me to it.

However, it turned out to be a mistake. The topic of multitasking also arose frequently in this relationship. This time, it highlighted a ingrained behavior that affected our everyday lives. He claimed to know and be more aware simply because he was well-trained in multitasking. I was expected to believe in what he said and follow his lead without giving it a second thought. He genuinely believed that no one could argue with him on this, leaving my hands tied because I had other ideas that I wanted to discuss and evaluate with him.

One thing I know is that dating with another pilot would definitely show very toxic pattern about me, and I have no specific intention to do so. But, it is still true that I am still fascinated by aviation, even though I know I am really bad at multitasking and it is okay because it is actually agains human nature.

I wish I were challenged by something that I am truly passionate about, allowing me to show my worth to do world. That’s how I feel. Yet, it is sad because, it means i am looking for a way out and I feel lost.

Yes, that might be true, but it is also true I don’t have to get challenged by somebody else to prove my worth to myself. And, that’s is exactly what I need to do, in my own mono-tasking world.